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excellent — in a high degree promotive of the general happy result on the right, and in the highest degree creditable to themselves.
The loss of the Seventeenth was very heavy, it being one hundred and one, out of not more than two hundred carried into action.
Major Pickett, who commanded the regiment, fell late in the fight, desperately wounded by a ball through the breast.
Hardly had Captain Jones, the next in rank, assumed the command before he was killed by a ball through the temple.
The Second regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Holmes, and the Fifteenth by Colonel Willican.
Both of these gallant officers have since been killed in battle.
They fell at Sharpsburg.
Major Pickett's wound has kept him from every kind of duty.
The consequence is, that we have now, for reports of the conduct of these three regiments, to depend on officers, none of whom, except Captain French, was in command during the action, and he but for a short time, near its close.
It is to be expected, therefore, that the regimental reports must be less full and perfect than they would have been but for those casualties.
I beg, however, to invite your particular attention to them, as they fill a vacuum in my own report.
They are the reports of Captain Lewis, for the Second Georgia; that of Major Shannon, for the Fifteenth Georgia; and that of Captain French, for the Seventeenth Georgia.
It only remains for me to bring to your notice the conduct of the second company of Washington artillery, commanded by that ever-ready and excellent young officer, Captain Richardson.
And in respect to its conduct I must refer you wholly to the report of Captain Richardson himself, for I was, during the whole battle, so otherwise engaged that I could not witness its acting.
That action was, however, from all that I hear, admirable.
I am, Major, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
Report of Colonel E. M. Law of Second battle of Manassas.
sir: I have the honor to make the following report of the participation of the brigade under my command in the action of Friday and Saturday, twenty-ninth and thirtieth August.
Leaving Thoroughfare Gap at sunrise on the twenty-ninth, the brigade marched in the direction of Manassas Junction.
At Gainesville, on the Warrenton turnpike, the line of march changed abruptly to the left, along the turnpike, in the direction of Centreville.
On arriving about midway between Gainesville and the Stone House, which is situated at the junction of the turnpike and the Sudley Ford road, I was ordered by Brigadier-General Hood, commanding the division, to form the brigade in line of battle to the left of the turnpike, and almost at right angles with it, the right resting on the road and the left connecting with General Jackson's line.
The Texas brigade had been previously formed on the right of the road, its left joining my right.
With a strong line of riflemen in front, which drove the enemy's skirmishers as it advanced, the brigade moved forward, accompanied by Generals Longstreet and Hood, until it reached a commanding position in front of the enemy, about three fourths of a mile from Dogan's house, which seemed to be the centre of his position.
At this point, a severe artillery fire was opened by the enemy's batteries.
A halt was ordered, and the troops remained in position until our artillery could be brought forward.
Our batteries took position on a ridge to my left and rear, and opened fire with marked effect upon the enemy.
The fire of the artillery and skirmishers continued, almost without intermission, until near four o'clock P. M., when heavy musketry on my left announced an attack of the enemy on General Jackson's position.
Soon after this attack commenced, a brigade of General Jackson's command moved out of the wood on my left, drove the enemy from his position on the bridge, to the left of the hamlet of Groveton, and captured a piece of artillery posted there.
I immediately moved my line forward as far as Groveton, where it was halted on a line with the troops to my left.
At about six o'clock, a Federal battery, supported by a large body of infantry and some cavalry, was advanced along the turnpike to within four hundred yards of our position.
The guns had scarcely unlimbered, when I was ordered by General Hood to charge.
Moving rapidly forward, the brigade came first under fire of the battery, then in range of the enemy's infantry.
Delivering volley after volley, my men continued a rapid and uninterrupted advance upon the battery and its supports.
As they approached the guns, three of them were limbered up and carried off at a run, along the turnpike.
One remained, and continued to fire until my men were so near it as to have their faces burnt by its discharges.
Without faltering, they pressed forward, and the piece was taken.
At this point, a flanking fire was opened upon my right by a body of the enemy, which was advancing on the opposite side of the road, and passing to my right and rear.
I at once formed a portion of the Second Mississippi regiment along the road and at right angles to the line of advance, and returned the fire with effect, the enemy breaking and retiring.
The Second Mississippi now pressed forward beyond the road, and, together with the Texas brigade on the right, cleared the field of the enemy.
Meantime, on the left, my other regiments, Fourth Alabama, Eleventh Mississippi, and Sixth North Carolina, reinforced by the Twenty-third South Carolina, were advancing and driving the enemy before them.
The advance was continued until darkness prevented further operations.
I ordered a halt, and established my line across the turnpike, half a mile from the position whence the advance began.
A
